German Food Bank Reacts to Rise of Migrant Recipients From 29 to 75 Per Cent Since 2015

“The social state will collapse under the pressure of a huge number of immigrants merely receiving, but not contributing.” – You have probably read something along those lines numerous times now. This statement is backed by facts and simple maths.

Otto von Bismarck laid the foundation of the German social state with the introduction of social insurances well more than a century ago – a glorious achievement of modern civilisation. Yet the social state, as we know it, was supposed to be supported by the majority of the working people to help those in need. This is, of course, still the case today, but the number of people contributing to the social state is shrinking not least because of demographic problems such as declining birth rates of German people and therefore less population to support the German social state. Unfortunately, the receiving number of people keeps rising.

A sad fact is that people who have worked all their lives have to rely on inappropiately low benefits. Some people can’t even afford the most basic things in spite of them, showcasing the decline of the German social state that has been going on for a long time. All of this leads to the existence of organisations like Die Tafel, a food bank which collects donated foodstuffs and distributes them for relatively cheap money to people who need help the most. The number of those people – you may have guessed it – keeps rising.

This, of course, couldn’t come without consequences. In the German city of Essen, the local Tafel recently announced that it will only distribute foodstuffs to people with a German ID card for now. “Because of the refugee intake in recent years…”, the organisation explains, “…the number of foreigners among our customers has risen to 75 per cent (…).”

Three years ago, this number was at 29 per cent. The chairman of Essener Tafel further explained this measure by stating that “We feel like a process of repression has occurred”, and that he observed, “a lack of respect for elderly women”, which has lead to the latter being frightened of young men speaking foreign languages and being afraid to show up to pick up their food.

The first people to sense racism in this very reasonable move weren’t long in coming. Katarina Barley, minister of social affairs and member of the Social Democratic Party, criticised the decision as well. She has been a member of the government since 2013, so naturally, she is very much responsible for this mess, which has led to Essener Tafel taking those kind of measures.

Sadly, Essen isn’t the only city affected. In Crivitz, the distribution of foodstuffs from the local Tafel is now guarded by the police after the latter confirmed that migrants have hit people to advance in the long queues. Staff have reported they were frightened by the incidents, as migrants also tried to breach the entrance.